Half of Asia-Pacific finance professionals fear that their jobs will be gone or change substantially over the next decade, according to a poll by CFA Institute.

As more artificial intelligence systems and other technologies are deployed at workplaces, 48 percent of the professionals surveyed by CFA Institute are concerned that some or all of their work will be taken over by artificial intelligence and other technologies.

«Technological disruption is certainly driving change in the investment industry worldwide – and some jobs may no longer exist. However, it does not mean we have fewer people in the investment industry. It only means professionals will need to learn new skill sets to handle more sophisticated tasks which AI cannot perform,» said Nick Pollard, managing director for Asia-Pacific at the CFA Institute.

Jobs That Could Disappear

The top three jobs expected to disappear in Asia-Pacific include accountants or auditors (17 per cent), research analysts (13 per cent) and stock sales agents (9 per cent). Globally, the top three jobs expected to disappear include performance analysts (19 per cent), traders (11 per cent) and accountants or auditors (9 per cent).

Routine tasks performed by Performance analysts or accountants such as collecting data from companies, may spend several weeks going through annual reports and other documents to compile data. However, AI may be able to produce this data in just a few seconds, Pollard said.

Best Combination

In a similar manner, traders and sales agents are competing against online trading. Hong Kong’s Insurance Authority in December 2018 issued the first virtual insurance licence to Bowtie Life, which will not use agents or brokers but will only sell its products online. 

While job losses cannot be avoided, Pollard said that AI and “HI”, or human intelligence, would be the best possible combination in future. «Routine tasks will increasingly be performed by machines, and the human element of judgment will become more important.»

People Like to Face People

Not all are convinced that the human sales force would disappear. Gary Cheung Wai-kwok, chairman of industry body Hong Kong Securities Association, said broker and salesperson jobs will continue to exist. «There are areas that require human intervention, which machines or AI will not comprehend,» said Cheung, who was quoted in South China Morning Post.

David Friedland, managing director for Asia-Pacific at Interactive Brokers, said he did not see accounting or sales agent jobs disappearing entirely in the future. «People like to face people. Nevertheless, the new technology will bring in new jobs and will create new opportunities,» Friedland said.

Finance Professionals Still Increasing

Glenn Turner, chief operations officer at independent financial planning company Altruist Financial Group, said many financial companies will use financial technology to cut down on operating costs and enhance customer services.

Despite fears that some jobs could disappear, CFA Institute members still believed the number of finance professionals worldwide would increase by 16 per cent over the next decade to grow from 1 million to 1.2 million. These professionals include brokers, fund managers, analysts, advisers as well as senior management.